{"id":15612,"date":"2025-10-24T23:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T23:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15612\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T23:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T23:14:07","slug":"november-ballot-questions-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15612\/","title":{"rendered":"November ballot questions, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only are voters being asked to pick their next mayor in this election season<\/a>, but they\u2019re also weighing in on several major ballot proposals.<\/a><\/p>\n

While three of them concerning housing<\/a> have been receiving a lot of attention, there are two others that haven\u2019t been getting much debate.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

On Nov. 4, voters across the state will decide whether they\u2019ll approve a ballot proposal aimed at letting the state government convert woods into ski trails in rural Essex County
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The proposal lets New York\u2019s Olympic Regional Development Authority build on 350 acres worth of protected forest near Lake Placid, requiring the state to purchase 2,500 acres to give back
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Another ballot proposal would change city elections held during odd years \u2014 like the ones for mayor, comptroller and public advocate \u2014 to even years, when presidential and gubernatorial elections are held<\/p>\n

One of them concerns state land nearly 300 miles away from the city, while another would start the process to change the election calendar.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 4, voters across the state will decide whether they\u2019ll approve a ballot proposal aimed at letting the state government convert woods into ski trails in rural Essex County.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it mean we\u2019re gonna lose trails here?\u201d one Bronx voter asked NY1.<\/p>\n

The answer? No.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t know why we\u2019re voting for it, but I would be OK with them getting some more trails. I like trails. I think it\u2019s good to walk, it\u2019s good to hike. If they get some more trails, I\u2019m fine with that as long as it doesn\u2019t mean that we have to close Central Park because we can\u2019t afford to have both,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The proposal lets New York\u2019s Olympic Regional Development Authority build on 350 acres worth of protected forest near Lake Placid, requiring the state to purchase 2,500 acres to give back.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a catch: it\u2019s asking voters to greenlight construction that already happened in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had discovered mid-construction that they were doing things on state land that were not permitted by the Constitution,\u201d John Sheehan, with the environmental advocacy group Adirondack Council, said during an interview with NY1.<\/p>\n

The 6 million-acre Adirondack Forest Preserve is protected by the State Constitution under the \u201cforever wild\u201d clause.<\/p>\n

Sheehan said cutting down trees for ski trails and a storage shed was a problem, but he helped strike a bargain: a constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would not only give us the opportunity to clean up the past constitutional violations, but also make sure that nothing like that happens again in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

City voters get a say because all constitutional changes require a vote by state residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many cases, it is hard to distinguish this Olympic property from the forest preserve around it,\u201d he said, arguing the changes made don\u2019t negatively impact the land.<\/p>\n

Another ballot proposal would change city elections held during odd years \u2014 like the ones for mayor, comptroller and public advocate \u2014 to even years, when presidential and gubernatorial elections are held.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe origin of this election calendar is actually in trying to defeat Tammany Hall, the old party machine,\u201d explained Ben Weinberg, policy director at Citizens Union.<\/p>\n

Advocates say it\u2019ll save the city and state money by consolidating elections and boost turnout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen several states do that, and what we\u2019ve seen in all these places: voter turnout for local office doubles or sometimes more than doubles,\u201d Weinberg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will draw a much younger electorate and an electorate that is much more representative of the community as a whole. The largest benefits will go to communities of color and to younger voters.<\/p>\n

If passed, the state legislature still must approve a new law two years in a row signed by the governor, and then it\u2019ll go again to voters statewide as a constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n

A separate measure consolidating odd and even year elections for offices outside the five boroughs was already approved by the state legislature, but opposed by Republicans who argue it will grant Democrats an advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not only are voters being asked to pick their next mayor in this election season, but they\u2019re also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,114,25,8889,111,9,24,12,56,108,63,65,64,87,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-15612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-local-elections","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-bernadette-hogan","12":"tag-decision-2025","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-headlines","20":"tag-nyc-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}